


A New Future

by eshcaine



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Dean and Cas are talked about, Dean doesn't like Flying, Domestic Fluff, Eileen Leahy Lives, Eileen lives, Fluff, Future Sam Winchester, Gen, How I Hope SPN Ends, Hunters, Legacies, Life in the bunker, Men of Letters, Men of Letters Bunker, No British Men of Letters, Sam Winchester Centric, Sam Winchester Future, Sam Winchester as a Dad, Sam Winchester in the Bunker, Sam Winchester's Family, Slow Reveal, Someone takes the Impala, Winchester Family - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-03
Updated: 2017-05-03
Packaged: 2018-10-27 20:11:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10815870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eshcaine/pseuds/eshcaine
Summary: I saw a long post with people discussing and speculating on how they wanted Supernatural to end, and it inspired me to come up with this. Where the pilot painted a picture of a Family pulled apart, I wanted an ending that showed that family brought together.





	A New Future

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.  
> Rebloggable link here: http://thegodhunters.tumblr.com/post/160246502866/a-new-future

We see Sam Winchester open the door to his room inside the Men of Letter’s bunker in Lebanon Kansas. It’s not his original room, from before. What we can see of this room it’s a little bigger, and filled with a double bed and other homey furniture. Obvious signs are seen that he’s sharing this space with someone else. Sam leans on a cane, one specially made for his taller lankier frame, and steps out into the hallway. He’s older too, hair shot with silver. The lines in his face have increased but his eyes are still sharp and his movements are spry besides the limp and the cane.

He makes his way down through the halls and into the main library of the Bunker.

It’s busy, noisy, full of different people working. A few are on laptops going over information. More are pouring over books, reading and researching. Just beyond in the war room there are three young women who have pulled one of the old consoles away from the wall and are elbow deep in upgrading and repairing the wiring there.

As Sam comes through the room, each person in turn looks up and offers a smile or a friendly hello. They are always respectful, but always with fondness in their voices. Sam smiles, pauses to listen to someone discuss a Lamia case they found, that smile growing as he hears them working through the possibilities and solutions.

He’s just about to ask a question when a woman strides up through the war room, having come up from the garage area. She’s dressed the way he and Dean tend to dress for a hunt, and it’s obvious she’s just come from one with the grave dirt dusted over her clothes. Her blonde hair is cut short, but it curls tousled and wild on top of her head. Much like her father’s dark hair used to decades ago. Her eyes as still as blue as his but her smirking smile as she approaches Sam is still very much uniquely her own. She’s much older than we last saw her, but she’s aged well and is still in great shape.

Behind her, two younger people walk in carrying duffle bags. She casually asks them to take them down to the armory and then her eyes are back on Sam again.

“Hey Old Man,” She says fondly, her smile growing.

“Watch who you’re callin’ old Claire. Most of these kids are half your age now.” Sam teases.

Claire’s smile grows wide and warm, “They’re a good bunch.” She nods towards the two that just retreated to the armory, “Jace and Bev did good. Held up well against a nasty poltergeist.” When she turns back to Sam she smirks again, “And whatever. I’m still younger’n you.”

A woman in her mid 30’s comes out from around the hall, sees Sam and Claire and comes straight to them. She’s tall, and her hair is the same color as Sam’s once was. Her hazel eyes look determined and focused.

“Uh-oh,” Claire chuckles, “What did you do now Sam?”

Sam ignores Claire as his face lights up, “Hey Sweetie…”

“Don’t you ‘Hey Sweetie’ me Dad…” She plants her hands on her hips and gives Sam a face that reminds Sam so much of her mother Eileen that it makes his heart swell in his chest. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you…. I thought you were working on the Botanical lists with Jane?”

“I took a nap instead.” Sam shrugs. “Jane knows what she’s doing.”

Claire interrupts them for a moment, “Sorry guys, I need to get cleaned up. See you later?”

Sam’s daughter smiles at Claire, and looks apologetic, “Yes of course Claire, sorry.”

Claire nods and turns to walk back into one of the adjoining hallways, “No prob! See you later Mary, Sam…”

Sam gives a small wave and then turns back to his daughter, “What really has you worked up Mary?”

Mary rolls her eyes in that classic way her Uncle Dean has done for decades, “I can’t find the Roylance Guide or Spates Catalogue. Are they in your room? The Jones sisters are in Nashville dealing with some serious weirdness at Opryland and called for some assistance and…” Mary releases out a breath.

Sam smiles more and reaches out to touch his daughter’s shoulder, then he lets his hand linger there, “Hey, let’s go look in your Mom's and my room, hmmm? And then you can tell me what really has you worked up.”

With a chuckle he pulls her closer, to walk with his arm sheltering her around her shoulders. He’s never gotten tired of this, having her in his life. He endeavors to make the most of it everyday he can.

As they make their way out of the library and back into the hallways of the Bunker, Mary glances up at her Dad and bites her lip, “Well okay yes, it’s not really Opryland or any of that…”

Sam’s smile can’t help but grow. Mary still has the same tells as when she was little, worried she’d get in trouble for climbing on the telescope at five, or at fifteen when she stole Dean’s keys and took the Impala without asking first.

Speaking of that…

“So remember when I took the Impala to impress that girl I liked in high school?” Mary leans into her Dad as they walk down the hall.

Sam chuffs out a laugh, Dean’s reaction had been nearly comical in how he had exploded when he found Baby gone. Sam always wondered if Dean’s reaction was more for the safety of his niece more than the state of the Impala. “Not likely to forget that.”

“Well, uh, the apples didn’t fall too far from the tree.” Mary winces slightly and looks up at Sam, “The Impala is okay though, Mom is on her way to collect Sammie and the boys and…”

“Mary, wait….They took the Impala??” Sam stops to look at her. Sammie is his ten-year-old granddaughter, and ‘the boys’ are Sammie’s brothers, DJ and Cas, who happen to be seven years old. “Sammie is barely tall enough to see over the steering wheel and….”

“They got as far as the diner on Route 833, DJ wanted a milkshake…” Mary bites her lip. “And Sammie _can_ see over the steering wheel. Mom is furious though….”

Sam nods because yes, Eileen would be. He finds he’s not as upset however, and barely surprised. His grandchildren are Winchesters and the Impala has been a source of awe and fascination for all their children since each one of them has laid eyes on the car. He looks down at his daughter now, her brows drawn up half in apprehension and half in something else. She’s the children’s Aunt, and no doubt had something to do with this somehow.

Sam sighs and rolls his eyes, then restarts their walk down the hall to his and Eileen’s room. “Right. And how do you know Sammie can see over the steering wheel?”

Mary gives a non-committal shrug and detours on the subject, “Johnny is the one who always lets Sammie ride on his lap when he drives the Impala into town. He taught her to drive it. That isn’t my doing.”

Sam chuckles. Mary’s older brother Johnny and she had been having a long-standing feud over who would eventually own the Impala.

“I would be a responsible owner and caretaker for Baby. My kids wouldn’t be out joyriding and endangering themselves and the world….” Mary gestures around with the arm that isn’t wrapped behind in a half hug on Sam’s back.

“Mary Lillian Winchester…” Sam pauses, “First of all you don’t have any kids….” Sam lets his tone of voice wander out into ‘Dad’ territory, “Did you or did you not have anything to do with your niece and nephews getting their hands on the keys to the Impala?”

Mary looks nervous again, “Not intentionally.”

Sam’s brows go up as he slows his walk next to her.

“I thought I had put the keys away in the lock box…. on the wall with the rest of the car keys in the garage…. when I came back from driving everyone to the airport last night.” Mary states but is still jittery. “But I might have forgotten to actually lock the lock box.”

Sam shakes his head as they come to a stop in front of Sam and Eileen’s door. Sam opens it and steps inside. The wall to his left, one you couldn’t see from before, is visible now. It is covered nearly floor to ceiling not in books, or weapons, but with photos.

Family photos.

Photos of he and Eileen in front of the County Courthouse the day they were married, flanked by Dean and Cas as their witnesses. Photos of Eileen holding Johnny the day they brought him home from the hospital as an infant and then pictures of Mary as a baby as well. There are pictures of Johnny and Mary growing up in the bunker with Sam and Eileen, next to more photos of the kids with Dean and then with Castiel. A swath of photos of the children’s lives as they grew up and then more pictures of them as growing adults. Here is one of Johnny at 21 by the Impala sharing a beer with his Uncle Dean; there is one of Mary graduating from college, her smile bright with one hand in Castiel’s and her other arm wrapped around her smiling Mom, Eileen. And then more pictures of people who have come to live at the bunker and call it home like Claire. Finally a single photo of Johnny standing at the bottom of the bunker stairs, his arms full of his twin baby sons and a three year old Samantha Winchester clinging to the hem of Johnny’s jacket.

Mary nudges Sam’s elbow with her own as they both look at that photo together. Sam still doesn’t know all the details of what had happened. He and Johnny had gotten into a fight, over hunting of course. And Johnny had taken off and disappeared, using what he had learned growing up in a Men of Letters bunker to not be traced or found. Dean and Cas had spent over a year on the road looking for him without success.

And then one day Johnny had just shown up at the Bunker, his arms filled with his small newborn sons and his little daughter timid and sad. The only thing Johnny would say was that it was safer at the Bunker, that he was sorry and that he was there to stay. It had taken a long while for the healing needed for everyone involved. But those three children had settled into the bunker easily, and Dean had doted on them incessantly.

Sam side eyes Mary now, “You get to tell Dean when he and Cas and Johnny get back from Buenos Aires. I’m certainly not doing it after he’s been on a fifteen hour plane ride….”

The nervousness comes back into Mary’s eyes, “Yea well, you know, when I get back. From Nashville. And Opryland…” She takes a breath, “And besides, Uncle Cas will calm Uncle Dean down. He always does.”

Sam chuckles and shakes his head. She’s not wrong about that last part. He leans over to kiss his daughter on her forehead and then moves to the bookcase in the room. “You also have to go meet your Mom when she comes back with the Impala and the kids…and tell her about the keys.”

Mary’s face goes pale at hearing that.

Sam pulls the books she had asked for from the shelf and then offers them to Mary. “It’ll be fine. And if not, I’ll make sure you have a very nice hunter’s wake.”

“That’s not funny Dad.” Mary blanches as she takes the books from him.

“You could always hide at Jody’s….” Sam offers.

“That sounds like a great idea!” Mary beams and hurries forward to kiss her Dad on the cheek, and then she’s out of the door and down the hall in a flash.

“Thanks Dad!”

Sam shakes his head and sits down on the edge of the bed. “That wasn’t a serious suggestion…” He muses as he listens to her foot falls fade down the hall.

Sam’s eyes rest on the wall of pictures once more. Years ago he never would have dreamed that his life would be filled like this now, surrounded with so much family and so many friends. Deep inside he’s filled with so much gratitude he could burst.

Sam is about to stand up and walk back out, when his phone chimes. He pulls it from his pocket and smiles when he sees Dean’s name on the screen. With a swipe of his finger he answers and brings it to his ear.

“Hey, how was your flight?” Sam listens and chuckles. “That terrible huh?” a pause, “Yea… yea I hear you. Johnny snores pretty loudly when he falls asleep on flights….”

We hear another pause as we draw back away from the scene, retreating backwards out the door into the hall. Sam framed by the doorway as we go.

“No, uh, yea… things are fine here….but, um…”

We can’t see Sam now, he’s around the edge of the door-frame out of our sight line but we can still hear him speaking over the phone with Dean.

“Did you know Sammie can see over the Impala steering wheel now?”

-END-

 

 

**[For original post of this on tumblr click here.](http://thegodhunters.tumblr.com/post/160246502866/a-new-future) **


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